TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 191, 15 August 1870, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

THE GREAT ROBBERY. DISCOVERY OF THE STOLEN TREASURE. (from OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT). Dunedin, 2.30 p.m. A shoemaker named Reunie lias been arrested on account of the Clyde robbery. He confessed all about ifc, and took the polico to where the treasure was concealed. All is recovered with the exception of 30 ounces of inferior gold, and two bundles of notes amounting to about £550. The treasure was planted in four different places, extending over a distance of 40 miles. One of the policemen is said to be implicated. An enquiry is to be held to-day.

The pleasures of the overland journey from Canterbury to the West Coast are pleasingly illustrated by the following paragraph from the West Coast Times : — During the last journey of Cobb's coach ou the overland road, the coach was placed in considerable peril whilst crossing the Bealey, close to the station. The river, it appears, is very high, owiug to the present warm weather having caused a thaw ou the ranges, and the ford haviDg shifted. The leaders very soon were obliged to swim, and through this circumstance the vehicle was carried a considerable distance down the river, until at last the coach and horses were all afloat, and it was not without considerable difficulty that Mr. Stobie, the driver, was able to extricate the coach. Fortunately, however, this was done, without other mishap than a thorough drenching to the passengers and the wetting of the mails. The Queen of Madagascar. — The Ta matave Correspondent, of the Overland Commercial Gazette, May 6, says : — " The following items respecting doings at the capital, have come to hand through m ; ss ionary channels. The Queen embraced Christianity early in the year 1869, an j has all the summer been building a chapel royal. Meanwhile the wooden fence around the temple of the great national idol had been pulled down, and the priests assumed a threatening aspect, even hinting that their god had medicine, which would avenge him on the heretic Sovereign. On September 8, they came in force to the capital to claim their rights as nobles. A Couucil was called, aud it was decided to send the Chief Secretary of State and other high officials to the sacred village, seven miles from the capital, and burn the idol before his keepers returned. They set off the same afternoon, and by an authority from the Prime Minister, seized the idol's house. The wood of the fallen fence was collected, and a fire was made, and the contents of the temple were brought out to be burned. First the long cane carried before the idol in processions was thrown in; then twelve bullock horns from which incense or holy water had been sprinkled; then three scarlet umbrellas, and the silk robe worn over the idols by the keeper who carried it. Then came the idol's case, the trunk of a small tree hollowed and fitted with a cover; and, last of all, the idol itself. Hardly any of the present generation had seen the god, and great was the surprise when he was produced. Two pieces of scarlet silk, about three feet long and three inches wide, with a small piece of wood about as big as a man's thumb, inserted in the middle, between them, so that the silk formed as it were two wings, was the great god of Madagascar, whose touch was sanctifying, and whose nearness was preservative. You cannot burn him, he is a god, said the people. If he be a god he will not burn, said the officers, we are going to try; and they held it on a stick in the fire that the people might see it as it was consumed. The victory was complete. Next day four other idols shared the same fate, aud the rest followed. One was a little bag of sand; another consisted of three rouud pieces of wood, united by a silver chain. The people looked on in wonder, and when the process was over, seeing that they had now uo gods to worship, they sent to the queen to ask what they were to worship 'for the future.' It is stated that after this the Government appealed to the native Christians to seud Christian teachers, and they at once responded. It was found that of 280 towns and villages in Imirena , (the Hova province.) 120 already had Christian churches, and teachers were at once found for the rest. This movement, which is remarkable for its purely native origin, is another proof that in certain stajies of civilisation nations may be con- ? verted by authority. The conversion of Madagascar has been accomplished in the 19th century much as that of the Saxons 3 was accomplished in the 6th. The iconoclast is the Reformer's forerunner. To overthrow a fetish worship th ' fetish itself must In- fir it destioyed. Thus eay the missionaries, and the account, colored as it may possibly be, is certainly interesting and e.uiimis. It is stated here that an Anglican BMmp has at last been definitely appointed for Madagascar.